Frequently Asked Questions

What is Hypnosis?

There are many common misconceptions of hypnosis. Hypnosis is NOT sleep, but is actually a completely natural state of mind that people drift in and out of all day long. It could be said that the hypnotic state lies between full consciousness and sleep – similar to daydreaming - and this state is accessed by the hypnotherapist talking the person through a series of mental and physical relaxation exercises.

You will already have experienced a state of hypnosis many times in your life… Have you ever got into your car and driven off, only to ‘wake up’ a few minutes later realising that you have driven some miles without really paying conscious attention to either your driving or where you were going? Driving is not easy, but you were safe, you drove the car and navigated the roads safely, even though you were not consciously aware but were in a kind of trance, a state of ‘downtime’. This trance state can vary from a very light trance to a very deep state of complete relaxation and the experience of this is individual to us all.

What is Hypnotherapy?

"A hypnotherapist is a therapist who utilises hypnosis as a primary tool for assisting clients to achieve their goals"

Hypnotherapy is a natural, effective way of making contact with the inner self and involves the use of hypnosis to change your mind for positive benefit. In hypnosis, you are more receptive to suggestions and also more receptive to other forms of therapy, so hypnotherapy can therefore be used to help a wide variety of issues ranging from stress, anxiety, pain and overcoming habits and phobias. It can also include an element of coaching and be used for personal improvement such as helping overcome exam nerves, public speaking confidence or enhancing athletic performance. In fact, even functional disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome have been very successfully treated through hypnotherapy.

Unfortunately, our own subconscious which is packed full of guilt, past experiences, and hidden or repressed memories, shackles us all at some time in our lives. Negative mental vibrations effect all of us in some way, but fortunately hypnotherapy can help overcome this unproductive self-doubt and these limiting beliefs and help us achieve our true potential. Our unconscious mind is a source of most of our behaviour as well as a tremendous reservoir of unrecognised resources and healing intelligence.

What can Hypnotherapy do for me?

Hypnotherapy has made a real difference for real people, here are some examples:

Working with a client to help boost their self-confidence and change negative self-beliefs to help them move forward with their life – after just a few sessions, they are already achieving things they never thought they would even consider.

Over a number of sessions, helped a client overcome their very real and scary phobia of travelling on escalators and feelings of vertigo – the client is now venturing up and down large shopping centres and even considering the London underground!

Worked with a client over 4 sessions to help them manage their symptoms of IBS and remove their anxieties associated with the condition – the client is now able to enjoy life without many of the feelings of anxiety and discomfort and finding much more self-confidence.

What is NLP?

NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming, which is a field of study concerned with what happens when we think and the effect our thinking has on our own behaviour, and the behaviour of others. It shows us how we can think better and thus achieve more. It could be said NLP is a bit like an 'owners manual' for your brain!

The name Neuro-Linguistic Programming was invented in the early 70’s as an attempt to describe a growing body of insights and skills into how the mind and body interact and how, by paying attention to the language people use, we can gain insights into a person’s thinking. The “programming” part can often be off-putting as it implies ‘being programmed’, however this is rather the study of how people think, their behavioural patterns or ‘programmes’, and how these are used in daily life.

NLP basically offers us tools for taking direct control of how our mind processes past events, deals with the present and anticipates the future. By teaching us how to change our way of thinking, NLP offers us effective techniques for overcoming past trauma and illness, leading to better functioning in all areas of our lives. NLP is perhaps best known for dealing with specific phobias and helping people to meet challenges such as exams and interviews successfully. NLP has also become accepted as a leading field in high performance psychology and is used extensively in the areas of teaching, training, management, sports and music.

Is there any danger?

There is NO danger to the therapeutic use of hypnotism. The worst case scenario for hypnosis is that it simply will not work for some people in some cases. Individuals CANNOT be hypnotised against their will and entering hypnosis requires a state of consent, in which the hypnotherapist assists the individual to achieve a wonderful state of relaxation. Some people fear that they will "stay hypnotised," after the hypnotist has ended the hypnosis however this is simply not true. You remain in complete control throughout the entire experience.

Individuals can enter a state of self-hypnosis and gain complete relaxation under stressful conditions. Like meditation, or yoga, self-hypnosis can program the sub-conscious mind to be open to therapeutic suggestions.

Some people doubt whether hypnosis works, or worse, think it can be used to take away their free will. These are common misconceptions of hypnosis. Most people can be hypnotised, but hypnotism works best on the open mind. Hypnosis CANNOT be used to over-ride our core values. It CANNOT be used to make an individual do something they wouldn't do normally. It can help a smoker who wishes to stop smoking end their addiction, but wouldn't make a non-smoker start the habit.

There are many common misconceptions of hypnosis. Most of these are simply due to a lack of knowledge concerning hypnotism. Hypnosis can be a useful tool to enhance positive behaviour and positive life outcomes.

Is there a science behind hypnosis?

Scientists have been fascinated by hypnosis and made a study of it since it was developed by Dr. Franz Mesmer in the late 1800's. In fact the early users of hypnosis were primarily scientists who sought practical ways to use hypnosis to help people, such as using hypnosis as an anaesthetic for surgery. The first recorded use of hypnosis for pain relief was in 1842, an amputation described by James Braid, who actually coined the word 'hypnosis'.

Most scientists believe that hypnosis is a way of connecting directly to the subconscious mind. Generally a person is only aware of the thought processes in the conscious mind. Our subconscious mind is responsible for controlling automatic functions – you don’t have to think about breathing, walking, and even driving a car or doing other things which we have committed to habit are products of the subconscious mind. You don't have to worry about the small stuff with your conscious mind because your unconscious can handle it. A person may perform a conscious action, such as choosing the words for a speech, but while doing that it is the subconscious mind that is doing the majority of the work behind the scenes.

The subconscious mind is the unconscious. It has a vast reservoir of information, much like a computer and allows the human mind to carry out day to day functions with ease. If a new idea comes to you, your subconscious already thought of it and transmitted the idea to your conscious mind. It has therefore been said that the real brains behind your brains are your subconscious mind. And when you sleep the conscious mind is resting while the subconscious takes control, perhaps explaining dreams, a way in which the subconscious works out problems. Scientists believe that hypnotherapy works because it is deeply relaxing and allows the subconscious mind to have reign over the conscious, allowing a hypnotherapist to work directly with the subconscious mind for you.

What is the history of hypnosis?

Hypnosis in cultures other than our own may not be quite as common now, since western culture has so many examples of hypnosis from stage shows and magicians to
television program and film depictions of hypnosis. And the idea of making a member of the stage audience think he or she is a chicken has provided hours of
entertainment to people all over North America and Europe.

Hypnosis however has been traced back to cultural and religious rituals in many other civilizations. The aboriginal people of Australia have used hypnosis for
thousands of years, and in fact application of what we call hypnosis in our modern culture is one explanation for the aboriginal "Dream Time" altered states of
consciousness and, many claim, out of body experience.

Ancient Egypt also commonly used hypnosis. Egyptologists have found hieroglyphics on the walls of tombs in Egypt depicting what many scholars believe to be hypnosis.
There are many rather daring theories circulating in fact that the Ancient Egyptians were connected with the perhaps mythical lost continent of Atlantis, making
their culture much older than previously thought, and that the Atlanteans used hypnosis as a common tool for their increased mental abilities.

In Chinese medicine there is a healing system based on hypnotic trance called Oigong, or exercise of vital energy. Some estimates say that about five percent of the
people of China practice this type of hypnosis, making it the most common type of hypnosis to be practiced in the world. Practitioners believe it
can increase mental and physical energy.

As hypnosis has historically been used for such diverse applications, it is easy to see that the stage
show hypnotist we think of as common, is only a small part of hypnosis, especially as far as the rest
of the world is concerned. Views of hypnosis in the Western world have changed dramatically over
the years and is now becoming a far more widely accepted approach to addressing many issues,
from helping people overcome a number of medical conditions through to personal development
and performance enhancement.